Artist Statement:: The Process Of Creating
WHY I PAINT: THE PROCESS OF CREATING
I started taking private art lessons when I was nine years old and I have never stopped painting since! Now, IN MY MID 70'S and retired for more than 19 years, I not only have more time to paint but each day I love it more and more! One thing I realized a long time ago, I will never stop learning and improving my art skills! Each painting teaches me something. I force myself to try new things each time I start a painting although many times I get frustrated and , yes, depressed, I am inspired from somewhere to charge on and, most of the time, make it work...make the painting come alive and make ME happy!!!!
To me painting is both a real rush but, at the same time, it can be nerve racking and a lot of work. Some times color and value selection come intuitively and sometimes I agonize over them. Each color chosen, each brush stroke is a decision that affects the outcome of the painting. At least with oils you can always paint over a poor decision! It's knowing when to change it or when to leave it alone!
I start a painting based on an idea and image that has come to me in my mind's eye or that has been sparked by seeing something either in nature, in a photo, a magazine, in someone else's painting...almost any where. Before I begin a painting I have mulled it over and over in my mind, visualized it and actually painted it in my mind many times. As I begin the painting it assumes a life of its own, many times deviating from my original mind's image. I will continue to visualize the outcome, or different outcomes as I lay in bed or day dream during the day, making changes and decisions to then face the unfinished painting with new resove the next day.
For some reason, most of my paintings end up with strong colors and strong contrasts...the cummulative result of all those little decisions! That has become "my style" or "trade mark". Many times I have tried to start in a different direction only to find the final result to be the "inner me".
I have always been attracted to the water. I swam competitvely since I was six years old, through high school and college. I have always lived on or near the water including South America, Cape Cod, the New Jersey shore, and Charleston, South Carolina and cruised througout the Mediterranean, Irish, North, Norwegian and Baltic Seas. Currently, my homes in Seabrook Island and Salem, South Carolina expose me to beautiful ocean, marsh, creek and lake scenes and all that lives and grows around them! These scenes offer me unlimited inspiration and painting material. My only regret is that I will not live long enough to capture on canvas all the painting opportunities that this beautiful scenery has to offer.
I hope my paintings inspire you the viewer and make you feel the same inspiration I did when I first put brush to canvas to try and capture nature's beauty.